In a typical advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network, a collector may provide coverage for 1000 to 10,000 meters. By contrast, in a gateway-based network, a gateway may read a few meters, often just a single meter. In the gateway-based network, the traffic management and collector configuration issues are magnified by such difference in the collector to meter scale or ratio.
Various prior U.S. patent publication documents have addressed network communications, including such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,294 to O'Toole et al. entitled “Methods And Apparatus For Remote Configuration Of An Appliance On A Network;” U.S. Pat. No. RE, 41,030 to Pham et al. entitled “System And Method Of Network Independent Remote Configuration On Internet Server Appliance;” and U.S. Patent Application Publication Number U.S. 2006/0079999 to Husein entitled “Building Management With Remote Configuration.” The disclosures of all of the publication citations herein are fully incorporated herein by reference, for all purposes.
While various implementations of networks have been developed, and while various combinations of management and configuration implementations have be made available, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the presently disclosed subject matter.